Cyrus opens up to PEOPLE about his late friend Parton, who died one month ago
Credit: Billy Ray Cyrus ; Jason Kempin/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Billy Ray Cyrus reflects on his friendship with Dolly Parton one month after her death, calling her a light in the world
- He recalls a long-lost interview with Parton, showcasing their chemistry and her humor
- Cyrus cherishes memories of Parton, including her cooking for his band and recording a song with them
When Billy Ray Cyrus turned 65 last month, it should have been a day of celebration. Instead, it turned into a day of heartbreak as he and the rest of the world mourned country legend Dolly Parton.
Now, one month after Parton’s Aug. 25 death, Cyrus says he’s still celebrating his longtime friend, just as he plans to for years to come.
“There’s a countdown for me of when it has been one month,” he tells PEOPLE on Friday, Sept. 25. “I forever see that number 25 has changed in a different way. I call it A.D. After Dolly. We’re adjusting to a world without Dolly, and her light still shines. That’s the beauty of it.”
Cyrus says he received a special surprise earlier in the day, when he was sent a long-lost interview of Parton interviewing him at Dollywood in the early 1990s, around the same time they sparked a friendship while on tour together.
The clip, which originally aired on the Today show, showcases the pair’s crackling chemistry as they banter about dealing with fame, with Parton even joking that the two could have possibly been an item “if I was younger and I wasn’t married.”
Cyrus says that looking back on the clip now, and having it arrive on such a special day, has been particularly meaningful as he mourns his friend. He says he even sent it to his daughter Miley, 33, who responded saying that Parton — her godmother — looked “so pretty.”
“I’d never seen it in my entire life. It’s just the funniest side of Dolly,” he says of the clip. “She has on a beautiful yellow dress. She’s smiling and giggling. It’s so fun. And then there I sit going from obscurity and living in my car to opening for Dolly. It was right in the middle of the craziest point of my life. I do think Dolly shines so beautiful in it.”
Credit: Katherine Bomboy/NBC/Getty
It’s Parton’s sense of humor that sticks out most to the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer when he thinks about her. He recalls a time when he was recording with his rock supergroup Brother Clyde at a studio out in Burbank, Calif., and Parton dropped by with a dinner of fried chicken, gravy and biscuits. She even hopped on one of the band’s songs.
“She was so funny. I mean, not only did she feed us and put her voice on the record, she kept us laughing the whole time. That was really, really a great day,” he says. “It was probably the best day of my relationship with her because it was first, centered around music. Second, she’d made dinner for everybody, brought it in a big basket with a checkered tablecloth over top of it. I mean, the way she did that was first class.”
Cyrus describes Parton as “like Mother Theresa meets Elvis [Presley] meets Marilyn Monroe,” and says she was “a star of a magnitude beyond this planet.”
Credit: Courtesy of Billy Ray Cyrus/Disney
“It’s a celebration, and that’s what today is,” he says. “Dolly is just such a light in the world. We all celebrate this day of all of her love and humanity. She treated every single human being that came in her path with love and grace.”
Earlier in the day, Cyrus shared a sweet letter Parton wrote him, which he considers a prized possession. In the letter, the “Jolene” singer wrote that she was happy that they were working together, and that she was proud of him.
She also joked she’d “stammered and blushed” when she met him “just like all the other girls,” and thanked him for signing photos to give to her nieces.
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